A FORCIBLE NUISANCE
by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: Takes place between chapter one and two of the original story, “Astrid.” Astrid is fourteen, and sometimes her father wonders why he decided to be a parent. There’s parentteacher meetings, fistfights, teenage impertinence...Poor Vader. ABANDONED
1. Chapter 1

**A FORCIBLE NUISANCE**

Hello:)

This is another Astrid fic. It's a prequel to "Astrid" and I'm writing it because Astrid's character appealed to me so much and I thought her time as a teenager should be covered although I skipped it in the original fic.

Please R & R!

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CHAPTER ONE

Astrid sat at her desk and chewed on her datapad stylus absently. Everyone else was busily taking notes as the teacher lectured them on political history. Astrid, however, already knew far more about political history than she wanted to, and as if that weren't enough it also happened to be a somewhat embarrassing topic.

"…and the Iriquinian Dispute was solved by"

" – Lord Vader," Astrid muttered.

"…Lord Vader," continued Mr Parsons, oblivious to Astrid's remark, "through the use of"

" – a lightsaber."

"… diplomatic relations and persuasive reasoning."

Next to her Cassandra snorted with laughter. She was well-used to Astrid's "translations" of political history and of media reports, but nonetheless continued to be amused by them. Astrid just looked at the teacher sourly as he began teaching about earlier history, the Changeover.

Astrid had undergone another growth spurt recently, Cassandra noticed. The previously small girl had suddenly exploded in height earlier in the year, much to everyone's surprise, and was now a little taller than average. While her height had increased, however, her width had not, making Astrid look like "a scarecrow" as she disgruntledly phrased it. Cassandra had grown a little as well, but only marginally; she was still the smallest person in their grade. She was acutely conscious of the disparity in height between herself and her friends.

Astrid suddenly sighed, gustily. The teacher was used to her various reactions to the material he presented and so took no notice, but the girl on the other side of Astrid gave her an irritated look. She was a new girl, and Cassandra decided that she mustn't know who Astrid was. Or rather, who Astrid's father was.

Astrid looked sideways at the girl who had just looked annoyed. Her datapad entries were neat and detailed. Astrid wished that she could write like that. Her own handwriting was depressingly messy.

"Stop looking at my notes!" the girl hissed. "Just because you aren't paying attention doesn't mean I'll let you copy mine!"

Astrid gazed at her in surprise. _Everyone_ knew that she already knew everything in the ninth level history course, on account of her father. The girl misinterpreted the reason for her surprise.

"From a noble and august family, are you?" she asked nastily. "Well _I'm_ not going to let you do whatever you want, so get that into your head and read somebody else's notes." She turned a shoulder on Astrid.

Astrid stared at her in astonished indignation. Cassandra had to stifle her giggles. Cross, Astrid decided to answer the next question Mr Parsons asked just to prove that she had no _need_ to copy anyone else's notes. She didn't have to wait long.

"And now, who can name the foremost members of the Jedi Council at the time that their plot was discovered?"

Astrid immediately stuck her hand up in the air. Mr Parsons looked surprised.

"Miss Skywalker?"

"The most respected… man… on the Jedi Council at the beginning of changeover was Master Yoda, who was nine hundred years old and the most skilled lightsaber duellist of the time. He was also generally regarded as the wisest of the Jedi. Master Windu was also greatly respected. He was one of the major voices in the Jedi Council, and was unique in that he was seen to be balanced – uh, morally – between Light and Dark, rather than being entirely Light. In representation of this his lightsaber blade was the color purple rather than the usual blue or green – it was a symbolic combination of the Light color blue and the Dark color red."

Astrid sat back, allowing a slight look of self-satisfaction to come over her face. That last little snippet about Light and Dark was unknown to most and wasn't covered in the school syllabus.

"Thank you, Astrid," said Mr Parsons, almost reproachfully. He went back to teaching.

Astrid, out of the corner of her eye, could see the girl looking at her in angry astonishment. She smirked.

"I don't take notes," she whispered, still staring straight ahead but making sure that the girl heard every word, "because I don't need to."

The girl glared.

Cassandra and Astrid were sitting together at "their" table eating lunch when the girl marched over.

"How come you knew all that stuff?" she demanded. Astrid gave her a disdainful look, eyebrows slightly raised.

"I beg your pardon?" The intonation was cold, and reminiscent of Vader.

The girl, unusually, wasn't daunted.

"You heard me. That stuff isn't in the syllabus or in any of the books I've read about the Jedi. You made it up!"

Astrid surged to her feet, glaring. "I did nothing of the kind!"

Cassandra stood too, also glaring. "Astrid knows what she knows because she's _important_," she hissed. The girl was scornful.

"There's no Skywalkers in the Empire government that I ever heard of," she said angrily, convinced that Astrid was both a cheat and a liar and that Cassandra was involved in the lies. "I bet you're just some kid from a foster-family or something trying to be bett–"

_SMASH!_ The glass closest to Astrid exploded. Cassandra and their opponent stared at it in astonishment, while Astrid looked supremely disconcerted. Then, before the other two had recovered, she drew herself up and summoned all her dignity and command.

"I," she announced, loudly enough that people from other tables whose attention had been caught by the sound of the glass breaking, were able to hear, "am Astrid Skywalker, the daughter and sole heir of Lord Vader."

Her eyes were burning with furious anger. Unbeknownst to her, she was so angry that she looked quite formidable. Involuntarily her antagonist stepped backwards. Astrid took a step forward, leaning aggressively into the other's space. At that the other girl rallied and pushed Astrid violently away.

Astrid staggered back, then charged forward, knocking the other girl to the floor. The girl retaliated by pulling Astrid over backwards.

After that, it wasn't clear what exactly was going on. Cassandra bravely dived into the fray so that there were three people rolling about on the floor, pulling each others hair, kicking each others legs, or hitting each other in the face. It only ended when, abruptly, three separate pairs of hands grabbed a girl each and hauled them off each other.

"_This is disgraceful!_" Mr Parsons bellowed in Astrid's ear. Her anger vanished in sudden shock and she became aware that the fight had become the centre of a circle of interested students. Cassandra was being similarly berated, looking frightened, while the girl that they had been fighting was glaring and looking sulky.

"She accused me of making stuff up in class!" Astrid protested. "But I didn't! My father told me!"

At the words _my father_ some of the students moved back uneasily. Mr Parsons sighed exasperatedly.

"Let it be known," he said, raising his voice so that it carried, "that Miss Skywalker 'a', never makes things up in class, and 'b', is, indeed, Lord Vader's daughter."

He turned back to Astrid. "But that is no excuse for brawling in the refectory and causing a disruption!"

The three girls were treated in the school med-bay before being sent off to class. That afternoon Astrid arrived home with an interestingly-purple bruise around one eye, hoping fervently that her father was still off on a diplomatic mission.

No such luck. Astrid ran into Vader in the hall.

"Hi," she said, turning her head slightly to remove her eye from his field of vision and trying to sneak past.

A large hand clamped on her shoulder, effectively stopping her form doing so.

"What," asked the Dark Lord, his voice filled with disapproval, "happened to your eye?"

Astrid sighed as he turned her head to the light to inspect her black eye better.

"I got into a fight," she explained.

"I see." Astrid winced at the note in his voice.

"It was a matter of honour!" she protested. "It was a new girl who accused me of cheating and making things up in class!"

Vader appeared exasperated.

"You are supposed," he boomed, "to act with becoming dignity. If you are insulted, you are mean to _negotiate_ the problem."

Astrid smirked.

"I _was_ negotiating," she assured him, grinning. "They were, ah, 'aggressive negotiations,' that's all."

Vader appeared to struggle with himself. Astrid watched warily. Finally he sighed.

"You are difficult and troublesome," he told her resignedly.

Astrid looked up at him gravely. "Proof of paternity."

Vader made an indescribable, strangled sound while Astrid watched him solemnly. Vader decided to ignore that remark.

"I will arrange to see your teachers tomorrow," he said sternly, "to discuss this with them." He strode off to his quarters.


	2. Chapter 2

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CHAPTER TWO

The next morning the students at Astrid's school were alarmed to see an infamous black figure sweeping through the corridors, a smaller, far less formidable figure following behind him with an expressionless look.

Inside the headmaster's office the girl Astrid had fought was sitting with her parents, looking sulky.

"I don't see why we need to be here," her father complained, "merely because Nerida got into a fight. Kids fight all the time!"

His wife glared at him.

"This is serious, David," she said angrily. "You daughter gets into a fight on the first day of school and you don't see why we need to be here?"

At that moment Lord Vader entered the room. The family gasped.

"What the hell–" Nerida's father began.

"Lord Vader," the principal greeted him, in friendly-but-serious tones. He was a veteran of parent-teacher-parent meetings and the identity of one of the parents didn't deter him in the least. Vader could hardly be worse than some of the adolescent delinquents he had to deal with, after all. "Welcome to the school, Lord Vader."

Lord Vader nodded at him as Astrid trailed in behind him looking expressionless and dignified, her black eye cancelling the effect somewhat. Vader turned to the two gaping parents, who didn't yet understand why he was here. He looked down at them as Astrid took a seat.

"It is fortunate that you were able to make it to this meeting," he boomed. He sat down next to his daughter.

"W-what?" gulped Nerida's father. Nerida just looked twice as sulky. The principal took over.

"Mr and Mrs Cerebro, this is Lord Vader and his daughter Astrid," he said solemnly, sitting down at his desk and regarding them all gravely. "Lord Vader, this is Mr and Mrs Cerebro and their daughter Nerida. I understand that you have called this meeting due to the confrontation between the two girls that occurred yesterday."

"She said I was a cheat and a liar," Astrid said. "What?" she added, as her father looked at her. He ignored this and turned to look at Nerida's parents, who were looking vastly uncomfortable.

"My daughter arrived home yesterday," he stated, "with a black eye, and with scratches and bruises. She told me that a new student first accused her of copying her notes, before going on to say that she was a liar and had made up the information she had volunteered in class, and accusing her of pretending that I was her father. She then flung insults regarding Astrid's parentage. I am not accustomed to my daughter being treated in this way."

He waited. Nerida's mother turned to her angrily.

"What did I tell you about making trouble?" she said. Nerida scowled.

"Well, she was looking at my notes," she said sullenly. "What else was I to think? And then she pours out this information that isn't in the curriculum and smirks at me, her and her little friend acting all stuck up–"

"I wasn't acting stuck up!" Astrid said indignantly. "I have a natural dignity when insulted!"

"Which is no doubt why you have a black eye," her father suggested dryly. "Why don't you display some of this alleged natural dignity now."

Astrid glared at him. With, indeed, great dignity, she smoothed her face out into a polite expression and looked back at Nerida, waiting for her to continue. The principal's lips twitched. Astrid now had the same exact air that her father did, although she was seemingly unaware of it.

Lord Vader wasn't. He looked down at her, before apparently deciding that her mimicry was unintentional. He looked back at Nerida. She stared at her knees.

The child was extremely miserable, he noticed, and not just about this meeting, either. It was a sort of habitual miserableness, and he suspected that it was perhaps this feeling that had led to the confrontation, rather than any great provocation on Astrid's part. He sighed inwardly.

"You did not attack Astrid for those reasons," Vader stated calmly. "It was your emotions at the time that led you to lash out at her."

Nerida darted a startled glance at him before continuing to stare at her knees.

"Such emotions are not productive," he went on. "What is causing them?"

Astrid leaned forward intently, trying to perceive that her father did. She succeeded.

"What is making you so miserable?" she asked gravely.

Nerida glowered and muttered something.

"Speak up!" her father ordered sharply. Her head shot up and she glared at him.

"_I said_, I'm sick of being some kind of furniture!" she yelled. "You never notice me unless I've done something wrong, you never care about what I'm doing or feeling, we're always moving so I never have any friends, and I'm lonely and _angry!_"

Her parents looked rather startled. She wasn't finished, though.

"And then I sat next to this girl, who was laughing and giggling with her _friend_, and who obviously didn't know _anything_ about being unwanted or miserable–"

"I do, actually," Astrid said quietly. "Until I was twelve and my father found me I was an abandoned and despised foster child without friends or family."

Nerida gave her a twisted, astonished glance.

"I wish I'd known that," she said after a moment, voice breaking a little. "I wouldn't have felt so…"

"Jealous?" the principal suggested kindly. She nodded. "Well," he said briskly, "I think we've gotten to the bottom of this problem, don't you, Lord Vader?"

"Indeed," said Vader, getting to his feet. "Parental neglect." Nerida's parents would have protested against that remark only Vader had already swept out. Astrid gave Nerida a small, sympathetic smile before following her father out.

The hallways were deserted; everyone was in class.

"Poor Nerida," said Astrid after a moment. "Living like that, I mean." She grabbed Vader's hand and smiled up at him before letting go. Vader understood this to mean that she was glad that she had him. He acknowledged this by ruffling her hair.

"_Dad!_" Astrid exclaimed indignantly. She flattened her hair down again, a look of outrage on her face. "You messed up my _hair!_" She scowled at him.

"Where is your locker?" Vader asked, ignoring this display of teenage vanity.

"Just near here," Astrid grumbled, still smoothing her hair down. She stalked over to it and entered her security code. The locker door clicked and Astrid twiddled the handle to open it. She pulled out her datapads and looked up her timetable. She groaned.

"Literature," she announced gloomily. Vader walked with her to class. When they arrived, her followed her into the room. The woman froze at the sight of the tall, black figure coming in behind Astrid. The students whispered and moved their chairs away form the door.

"I apologise for my daughter's lateness," Vader told the teacher. "I am afraid that we had a meeting with the principal that took time out of this class."

"N-no problem," said the teacher, profoundly nervous.

"I will see you this afternoon," Vader told his daughter, ruffling her hair again.

"Da-_aad_!" Astrid complained. "Stop _doing_ that!" She flattened her hair down again with one hand, glaring at him. Vader didn't reply, instead walking to the door.

"Bye, Lord Vader!" Cassandra called out. Vader didn't acknowledge her remark.

As class resumed, Astrid took a seat at the desk next to Cassandra's.

"Is my hair alright?" she asked crossly. Cassandra grinned.

"It's fine," she reassured her friend. "Your father did that on purpose, didn't he?" Astrid scowled.

"Yes. I hate it when he does things like that." She frowned at the teacher, trying to work out what she was talking about. "What lit. are we doing?"

"Insrides' Volume of Philosophy," Cassandra answered. Astrid brought the book up on her Literature textpad. "I'm glad you got here. It's been awfully boring. I heard you were having a meeting with the new girl and her parents about the fight yesterday. What happened? You know, your black eye is even worse than yesterday."

"Yeah, it was about the fight," Astrid agreed. "Do you know, her parents don't care about her at all? She was so horrible because she was upset."

"Oh." Cassandra was silent for a minute. "That's kind of sad. I don't know what I'd do without my Mum."

"I know what I'd do without my Dad," said Astrid, "and it would be horrible. I felt really sorry for Nerida."

The girls lapsed into silence, thinking about her.

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Nerida stalked into the cafeteria.

"She's here," Cassandra whispered. Astrid gave the new girl a sly, sideways look. As Nerida went past, Astrid hooked her arm around Nerida's elbow.

"You want to sit with us?" she asked politely. Nerida glowered but sat down, casting them wary looks, obviously wondering what revenge they were planning.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

Astrid gazed at her in assumed surprise.

"Can't we be nice without wanting something?" she asked, feigning hurt. Nerida glared and crossed her arms.

Astrid grinned.

"All right, all right." She straightened and assumed an 'official' voice. "I am Astrid Skywalker and this is Cassandra Sperling. We are the misfits." She grinned mischievously. "I'm the kid from the foster home whose Dad scares the heck out of everybody, while Cassandra is the scholarship student that no one else associates with on account of her not coming from a dead-rich family like everyone else. Our mission is to find all other potential misfits and invite them to join us." She winked. "Therefore, we formally invite you to join our merry band and thereby bring our numbers up to three."

Nerida just stared at them.


End file.
